Films at the Redford Theatre
We got in there and it was a deshevelled lobby room, old yellow paint being painted over with white, the ornamental border getting painted over.. the surface of the wall was torn out to show chimney bricks. The doors were red. It was hardly a welcoming or nostalgic place. On the walls were photos of the outside and the lobby that we were standing in, the original floors were beautiful wood that was now carpetted over. They were raising money for repairs and restoration. The lights were dim and yellow, casting an old feeling onto the yellow walls and dark wood accents. The auditorium was made up to look like a japanese village with pagotas and landscapes in between buildings, and above us was a dark blue ceiling with small lights to simulate the night sky. http://www.redfordtheatre.com/ The theatre was beautiful, and the people were so eager to laugh and have fun. Most of them were dressed in halloween costumes which also picked up the morale. It felt like a halloween party in a time-warped theatre with live organ music. For atomosphere onstage, there was a ghost dog from "nightmare before christmas" floated round in circles as a lantern carried by an unseen human followed. Also fog-machines blowing steam across the stage. below the stage, in the orchestra pit area, there was a graveyard set-up, to the right was a small honky-tonk piano and to the left was the theatre organ. I loved to watch the guy play it, how he moved his fingers to make chords and stepped up and down the levels of keyboards, and all the levers used to make different sounds. I got to hear a few of the sound effects that the organ plays, I was happy to hear that, the doorbell sound and a carnival bells (sort of a xylophone sound) all came out of the right side of the wall pipes. Most of the song music came from the left side pipes. Music played includes "phantom of the opera", "music of the night", "as time goes by", "spiderman theme" (who was present there), and other haunting organ songs for halloween.
Something that surprised me was that they stuck to the old-fashioned way of a movie evening. First we had organ music, then the guy came onstage to tell us the "news" (theatre promotions and future events), then a giant stage-size american flag came down and the national anthem was played on the organ and the audience sang along (reminded me a bit of a baseball game), and then the short films were shown, and then the feature film.
The first film of the evening was Harold Lloyd's "Haunted Spooks", the audience got a kick outta Harold, they laughed alot at the chicken scene. The film was fairly good, but the quality was dark and blurry. I got a kick outta the little boy who was small enough to do alot of gags in it, including fitting inside a flour bin (making him ghostly white to scare Harold) and then hiding (from the ghosts) inside a pair of pants, making it look like the pants are walking by themselves. Harold is always known for his clever illusions which are constantly being ruined or found out throughout the film. Buster seems to like the same type of camera tricks and illusions to spring gags from, but Harold seems to depend heavily upon them. Usually his nerdy, clever character seems to always use illusions to get around problems, and he loves to stay around to see if they work out. But, in this film he let the other people in the film take hold of the illusion gags and his character just did the reactions. It's a different sort of thing to see from him.
Then they swung right into Buster's "Haunted House". I was giddy when I saw his face appear onscreen, it was like a dream.. being there in an old theatre and hearing the live music, it felt like I was with an audience in the 1920s who were watching this film for the first time. The film quality was gorgeous. He looked so big and clear, and I found that I was turning my head to follow him around the screen trying to pick up body gestures and facial expressions. Bigger is better, haha I can't wait to see him again on the big screen, he was gorgeous, the film was made for the big screen. The scenes where the lights were knocked out, I couldnt believe that I could see what Bus was doing, because usually when watching this film at home I can't see anything except his pale face floating around the screen. The audience laughed at money-dance scene, the money/glue part overall got alot of laughs. Then afterwards the laughs started dying down. Nobody made any noise or laughter about his acrobatics. Nobody laughed at the bit where the next morning his pants are still stuck in the safe door (i was sure someone would giggle or something). Little laughs for him stamping on the devils foot. I found this version was different than mine, a new bit includes that he got the ghost outfit when after he stamps the devils foot, throws down the devils cape, then sees a ghost walk past the doorway. he grabs a vase, follows, the ghost throws the switch for the stairs, and bus throws up the vase and moves the ghosts head to be under the vase, and it conks the ghost. Bus steals his costume (we dont see that part). In the room where the devils cape catches on fire, the rug in front of the fireplace opens like a trap door, and leads to the hide-out room. thats how buster gets down there with the costume to use the gun. Complete silence came with the bit where he goes to heaven, but some giggles arose when he plopped on the floor of Hell (mum laughed).
"Invasion of the body snatchers" a silly 50s horror film that is so serious it makes fun of itself. The people behind us kept noting that if the guy was a doctor, why does he smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol to solve any problems ("you're brother isn't your brother? here, have a drink." "this guy has no fingerprints and an unrealistic face, I bet he's going to evolve into you, my friend. well, i'll leave you alone with this creature that will become you, call me if anything happens, you are still alive.") such ridiculous things like that has me wondering why this guy was a doctor, he seemed just as deadpan as the pods they were running from. It's not a film I'd wanna see twice, but it was nice to see an old talkie back on the big screen. The film reel messed up twice while watching this, the first time the film went all blurry, you saw a bunch of talking blobs walking around, and audience had fun giggling and yelling at the camera operator of how to fix it LOL. The second goof was that the screen went black and numbers jumped all over the place (if they changed the reel at that point, that was a very quick change! someone was on top of that really quick.) It just made the experience even more real to me.
Note to self: When I go to an old theatre in the future, bring a nice thick coat.. 1920s theatres ARE NOT HEATED. I should've learned that from the other two I've been to, but that was so long ago I didn't remember. The drafts may add to the atomosphere and nostalgia of the old fashion theatre, but my hands and body were very cold.
Something that surprised me was that they stuck to the old-fashioned way of a movie evening. First we had organ music, then the guy came onstage to tell us the "news" (theatre promotions and future events), then a giant stage-size american flag came down and the national anthem was played on the organ and the audience sang along (reminded me a bit of a baseball game), and then the short films were shown, and then the feature film.
The first film of the evening was Harold Lloyd's "Haunted Spooks", the audience got a kick outta Harold, they laughed alot at the chicken scene. The film was fairly good, but the quality was dark and blurry. I got a kick outta the little boy who was small enough to do alot of gags in it, including fitting inside a flour bin (making him ghostly white to scare Harold) and then hiding (from the ghosts) inside a pair of pants, making it look like the pants are walking by themselves. Harold is always known for his clever illusions which are constantly being ruined or found out throughout the film. Buster seems to like the same type of camera tricks and illusions to spring gags from, but Harold seems to depend heavily upon them. Usually his nerdy, clever character seems to always use illusions to get around problems, and he loves to stay around to see if they work out. But, in this film he let the other people in the film take hold of the illusion gags and his character just did the reactions. It's a different sort of thing to see from him.
Then they swung right into Buster's "Haunted House". I was giddy when I saw his face appear onscreen, it was like a dream.. being there in an old theatre and hearing the live music, it felt like I was with an audience in the 1920s who were watching this film for the first time. The film quality was gorgeous. He looked so big and clear, and I found that I was turning my head to follow him around the screen trying to pick up body gestures and facial expressions. Bigger is better, haha I can't wait to see him again on the big screen, he was gorgeous, the film was made for the big screen. The scenes where the lights were knocked out, I couldnt believe that I could see what Bus was doing, because usually when watching this film at home I can't see anything except his pale face floating around the screen. The audience laughed at money-dance scene, the money/glue part overall got alot of laughs. Then afterwards the laughs started dying down. Nobody made any noise or laughter about his acrobatics. Nobody laughed at the bit where the next morning his pants are still stuck in the safe door (i was sure someone would giggle or something). Little laughs for him stamping on the devils foot. I found this version was different than mine, a new bit includes that he got the ghost outfit when after he stamps the devils foot, throws down the devils cape, then sees a ghost walk past the doorway. he grabs a vase, follows, the ghost throws the switch for the stairs, and bus throws up the vase and moves the ghosts head to be under the vase, and it conks the ghost. Bus steals his costume (we dont see that part). In the room where the devils cape catches on fire, the rug in front of the fireplace opens like a trap door, and leads to the hide-out room. thats how buster gets down there with the costume to use the gun. Complete silence came with the bit where he goes to heaven, but some giggles arose when he plopped on the floor of Hell (mum laughed).
"Invasion of the body snatchers" a silly 50s horror film that is so serious it makes fun of itself. The people behind us kept noting that if the guy was a doctor, why does he smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol to solve any problems ("you're brother isn't your brother? here, have a drink." "this guy has no fingerprints and an unrealistic face, I bet he's going to evolve into you, my friend. well, i'll leave you alone with this creature that will become you, call me if anything happens, you are still alive.") such ridiculous things like that has me wondering why this guy was a doctor, he seemed just as deadpan as the pods they were running from. It's not a film I'd wanna see twice, but it was nice to see an old talkie back on the big screen. The film reel messed up twice while watching this, the first time the film went all blurry, you saw a bunch of talking blobs walking around, and audience had fun giggling and yelling at the camera operator of how to fix it LOL. The second goof was that the screen went black and numbers jumped all over the place (if they changed the reel at that point, that was a very quick change! someone was on top of that really quick.) It just made the experience even more real to me.
Note to self: When I go to an old theatre in the future, bring a nice thick coat.. 1920s theatres ARE NOT HEATED. I should've learned that from the other two I've been to, but that was so long ago I didn't remember. The drafts may add to the atomosphere and nostalgia of the old fashion theatre, but my hands and body were very cold.